TEHRAN (FNA)- UK-based NGO Airwars has offered a reckoning of the 2017 air operations of the US-led coalition in both Iraq and Syria. The number of civilians killed increased dramatically, with estimates suggesting that they roughly tripled from 2016.

In 2016, they documented an estimated death toll of 1,904 non-combatants, but in 2017, the estimate was a minimum of 3,923, and potentially as many as 6,102 non-combatants killed. That’s a huge increase, and a troubling one, in no small part because the US doesn’t admit it’s even happening, with Pentagon assessments putting deaths at no more than a few hundred annually, and around 800 over the entire past four years.

Airwars attributes the escalating toll in part to the fact that 2017 saw an increase in airstrikes, and an increased focus on densely populated cities. They also suggest the Trump administration’s relaxing of restrictions on airstrikes and view of the ISIL war as a “war of annihilation” are factors. On that note:

Reports of the damage wrought by coalition strikes have been corroborated by investigators on the ground. Researchers from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have visited the cities, towns, and camps in Iraq and Syria and interviewed survivors, who all tell similar stories of terrifying air and artillery strikes, as well as ISIL actions. The UN commission of inquiry for Syria has also been able to speak with survivors and witnesses to a number of strikes in the area.

One reason for the disconnect between public allegations and the US military’s claims is the pace of official investigations. Against this backdrop, the Pentagon regime has been dismissive of deaths it says are not as numerous as widely reported and in any case unavoidable. In one instance, its comments have preceded the conclusion of the coalition’s own investigations into reported civilian casualty incidents, raising the possibility that their outcome might be influenced.

The Pentagon officials have gone to great lengths to tout their care in avoiding civilian casualties. Now, however, those efforts threaten to be undermined by the new report. There is also no longer any public accountability. On May 26, an American military press officer confirmed that the Pentagon will no longer acknowledge when its own aircraft are responsible for civilian casualty incidents; rather they will be hidden under the umbrella of the “coalition.” This is while the United States military has been responsible for 95 percent of airstrikes in Syria and 68 percent in Iraq. Centcom should own up to its own actions rather than dispersing responsibility.

The Pentagon has shown little interest in identifying the root causes of civilian deaths as well, not holding commanders or lower-level officers accountable, or ensuring that the lessons learned from mistaken strikes are integrated into future operations. The Trump administration and the Congress could exercise their oversight role by mandating Pentagon reporting about what steps it has taken to mitigate civilian harm, funding additional awareness training for American and other coalition officers, and holding public hearings with senior civilian and military officials. Sadly, this is yet to be the case.

Since the air war began some 22,000 airstrikes ago, US military officials have repeatedly claimed that they “do everything possible” to protect civilians in Iraq and Syria. Making good on that promise is not only the right thing to do - it is also strategically vital to the longer-term effectiveness of the real fight against terrorism - something the US has never been serious about.

Perhaps this has to do with centuries of white supremacist slaughter and brutality, at home and abroad, which have accumulated into a spectrum of shared consciousness that includes war glorification, indifference, delusion, denial, and numbness.

In a nation that like no other extols personal responsibility, let us be clear that those who are fighting in Iraq and Syria, or support those occupying troops, have decided to do so. They made a choice and it was against International Law. A good number of US soldiers chose to kill civilians in Iraq and Syria. The effects of that alone cause pain and suffering to this day, including to US soldiers themselves. Collectively, they killed many Iraqis and Syrians, the majority of whom were civilians. Some even participated in flat out massacres in places like Mosul and Raqqa, most of which were never reported.

In other words, they are allowed to knowingly kill innocent civilians. And no one knows why that’s the harsh reality of the bogus US-led War on Terror.

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